Ellsworth Air Force Base (KRCA)
By John B. Loney, Jr.
January 25, 2005
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AIRPORT:
Ellsworth Air Force Base began its life as the airport for Rapid City. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a runway and hangar there. The year was 1939. Then the Second World War started; the airport became a United States Army Air Corps base. On 2 January 1942 the U.S. War Department established Rapid City Army Air Base as a training location for B-17 Flying Fortress crews. From September 1942--when its military runways first opened--until mission needs changed in July 1945, the field's instructors taught thousands of pilots, navigators, radio operators and gunners from nine heavy bombardment groups and numerous smaller units. All training focused on the Allied drive to overthrow the Axis powers in Europe. After World War II the base briefly trained weather reconnaissance and combat squadrons using P-61 Black Widow, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang, and B-25 Mitchell aircraft. Those missions soon ended, however, and Rapid City Army Air Field temporarily shut down from September 1946 - March 1947. When operations resumed in 1947, the base was kept open to serve the United States Air Force. The primary unit assigned to Rapid City Air Force Base was the new 28th Bombardment Wing (BMW) flying the B-29 Superfortress. The Air Force used it for heavy bombers, atomic missiles, and training. The missiles were called Minuteman Missiles. After the Cold War, all missiles were removed from western South Dakota. One site has been kept so that we will not forget the history of the Cold War. Today, Ellsworth is the home of B-1B bombers.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE SCENERY:
After my last release (KRAP) Rapid City Airport, I thought it would be appropriate to follow up with Ellsworth AFB, also located in Rapid City just a few miles away from KRAP. You must use the AFCAD2 file supplied with this scenery. I discovered that the start position was incorrect in the default setting. You could not communicate with the tower for takeoff at the stop line. The taxiway was modified to correct that problem. The arcraft in the scenery are of three types. The B1B Lancer, The C141 Starlifter and the C130 Hercules. The C141 and the C130 may not be at Ellsworth in real life, but I just threw them in for variety's sake. Also, the F15 and F16 is stationed at Ellsworth, but I left them out. If you wish you may add them on your own. The scenery was created with FSDS2, Rwy 12 and Lago's FSE. The latter is optional. If you do not have the Lago program not to worry, the scenery will work without it. So kick the tires and light the fires and let's go have some fun. Enjoy!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AIRCRAFT:
The startup aircraft is the Rockwell B-1B Bomber (b1b.zip at SurClaro). Below is the rest of the aircraft used in the AI Flight Plans. Also inclosed in this download is the flight plans source file.
The flightsim community for supporting the hobby
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
INSTALLATION:
AFTER UNZIPPING THE FILE KRCA_V1.ZIP TO A TEMPORARY FOLDER, HOPEFULLY, YOU ARE READING THIS README FILE.
If you don't have them already, download Lee Swordy's Traffic Tools v2x and AFCAD2x. Follow the instructions from the files and install them onto your system. While you're at it, download the texture files necessary for this scenery and put them into the main FS texture folder. They are: ASDv2.1, Nova, Nova Gold and NovaSim textures, plus my own custom textures. All are available for free at my website, www.lfssd.net (the "l" is an L, not a one). Go to SurClaro for the Rwy12 scenery tool and textures.
Using the folders switch, unzip the file krca_scen.zip to the drive where you have your FS. Using your file manager (Windows Explorer) check to make sure that all the files are in their proper folder.
C:\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files should have SD - Ellsworth Air Force Base FLT and WX files
Drive:\FS2004\Addon Scenery\scenery should have AF2_KRCA.bgl
Drive:\FS2004\Scenery\World\scenery should have TrafficEllsworth.bgl
Drive:\fs2k4_scenery\KRCA\scenery should have the krca_*.bgl scenery files
Drive:\fs2k2_scenery\KRCA\texture should have the following textures
Sign_Ellsworth AFB.bmp, Sign_Ellsworth AFB_lm.bmp, Sign_28th Bomber Wing.bmp and Sign_28th Bomber Wing_lm.bmp
Drive:\FS2004\Texture should have the following textures:
If you have Lago's FSE 2004, then check the following:
Drive:\FS2004\Lago\FSE\Data\should have EllsworthAFB.SE2
Start FS and select settings to add the scenery in the usual manner. Re-start FS and select Select a Flight. Scroll to SD - Ellsworth Air Force Base and click.
You should be ready to fly. Happy landings!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Legal stuff. Copyright and Distribution
--------------------------
This scenery is freeware. Copyright John B. Loney, Jr. Feel free to add or change this scenery. Especially if you know a more accurate placement of items. You do not have my permission to make any monetary gain from this scenery. It started out as freeware and it shall remain freeware.
- The author's rights and wishes concerning this archive must be
respected.
I do not accept any responsibility for any damage to any system as a result of running this scenery.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Contact:
--------
As usual, I welcome any comments. I will try to answer as many as I can.
